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35-561: It was first climbed on 29 June 1865 by Edward Whymper , Christian Almer and Franz Biner, a fortnight before the fateful first ascent of the Matterhorn . Whymper was unable to climb with his usual guide, Michel Croz , who had to wait for a client in Chamonix . As a result, Whymper hired the services of Christian Almer, who had been with Alfred Wills on the Wetterhorn in 1854. Whymper describes

70-501: A couloir on the south-east face with Michel Croz . After Croz left for a prior engagement with Charles Hudson , Whymper was unable to secure the services of Val Tournanche guide Jean Antoine Carrel, and instead planned to try the eastern face with Lord Francis Douglas and the two Zermatt guides, Peter Taugwalder and his son of the same name. Whymper was convinced that the Matterhorn's precipitous appearance when viewed from Zermatt

105-698: A junior synonym of Pristimantis curtipes ). In the early 1900s, Whymper visited the Canadian Rockies several times and made arrangements with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to promote the Canadian Rockies and the railway in his talks in Europe and Asia. In exchange, the CPR agreed to pay transportation costs for him and his four guides. According to the surveyor and mountaineer A. O. Wheeler, Whymper

140-427: A result of his Alpine experience, he designed a tent which came to be known as the " Whymper tent " and tents based on his design were still being manufactured 100 years later. Professor John Tyndall and Whymper emulated each other in determined attempts to reach the summit of the Matterhorn by the south-western, or Italian, ridge. In 1865, Whymper, who had failed eight times already, attempted unsuccessfully to climb

175-423: A rope to the rocks on the most difficult place, and held it as they descended, as an additional protection. Hudson approved the idea, but it was never done. It can be deduced that Taugwalder had no other choice but to use a weaker rope, as the stronger rope was not long enough to connect Taugwalder to Douglas. The account of Whymper's attempts on the Matterhorn occupies the greater part of his book, Scrambles amongst

210-486: A series of commissioned alpine scenery drawings. Among the objects of this tour was the illustration of an unsuccessful attempt made by Professor Bonney's party to ascend Mont Pelvoux , at that time believed to be the highest peak of the Dauphiné Alps . In 1861, Whymper successfully completed the ascent of Mont Pelvoux, the first of a series of expeditions that threw much needed light on the topography of an area which at

245-437: Is nearly as famous for its descents as it is for its ascents. In 1989, Jean-Marc Boivin made the first descent of Aiguille Vert's Nant Blanc (North Face) on skis. Ten years later, Marco Siffredi made the second-ever descent of Nant Blanc, and the first descent on a snowboard. The North Face would not be descended via this route again until 2018 when Paul Bonhomme and Vivian Bruchez successfully descended on skis. At times

280-617: The British Museum . Whymper's report was published in the report of the British Association of 1869. Though hampered by a lack of supplies and an epidemic among the local people, he proved that the interior could be explored by the use of suitably constructed sledges, and thus contributed an important advance to Arctic exploration. Another expedition in 1872 was devoted to a survey of the coastline. Whymper next organised an expedition to Ecuador , designed primarily to collect data for

315-841: The Mont Blanc massif and the Pennine Alps , among them the first recorded ascents of the Aiguille d'Argentière and Mont Dolent in 1864, and the Aiguille Verte , the Grand Cornier and Pointe Whymper on the Grandes Jorasses in 1865. That same year he also made the first crossing of the Moming Pass. According to his own words, his only failure was on the west ridge of the Dent d'Hérens in 1863. As

350-683: The Robert Brown 's Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition in 1864. When not climbing, Whymper pursued his profession as an engraver of illustrations for books and periodicals. Among the books he illustrated was his fellow-mountaineer Florence Crauford Grove 's The Frosty Caucasus (1875) Whymper also illustrated and engraved John Tyndall 's "Hours of Exercise in The Alps" (1871) and Augusta Bethell 's Helen in Switzerland (1867). He illustrated books for Isabella L. Bird but his brother Charles Whymper

385-616: The Yukon River to Fort Yukon , where he witnessed the first American flag being raised over the new territory of Alaska . In November 1867, Whymper arrived back in England where his account of his travels, Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska , was published in 1868. In 1869, he went back to the United States , by way of New York City to San Francisco and worked on the staff of

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420-490: The first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Four members of his climbing party were killed during the descent. Whymper also made important first ascents on the Mont Blanc massif and in the Pennine Alps , Chimborazo in South America, and the Canadian Rockies . His exploration of Greenland contributed an important advance to Arctic exploration. Whymper wrote several books on mountaineering, including Scrambles Amongst

455-758: The Alps (1871), in which the illustrations are engraved by Whymper himself. The accident haunted Whymper: Every night, do you understand, I see my comrades of the Matterhorn slipping on their backs, their arms outstretched, one after the other, in perfect order at equal distances—Croz the guide, first, then Hadow, then Hudson, and lastly Douglas. Yes, I shall always see them ... Whymper's 1865 campaign had been planned to test his route-finding skills in preparation for an expedition to Greenland in 1867. The exploration in Greenland resulted in an important collection of fossil plants, which were described by Professor Heer and deposited in

490-484: The Alps . Edward Whymper was born at Lambeth Terrace on Kennington Road in London on 27 April 1840 to the artist and wood engraver Josiah Wood Whymper and Elizabeth Whitworth Claridge. He was the second of eleven children, his older brother being the artist and explorer Frederick Whymper . He was trained to be a wood-engraver at an early age. In 1860, he made extensive forays into the central and western Alps to produce

525-476: The Mont Blanc massif range has estimated 60 deaths per year. As part of this range, there have been a number of incidents where climbers or skiers have been killed or gone missing on Aiguille Verte. 1964 - A freak summer avalanche resulted in the deaths of 14 climbers, who were roped together. 1990 - Snowboarding pioneer Bruno Gouvy died when he lost control after parachuting from a helicopter. 2014 - On July 9,

560-513: The Whymper Couloir. 2024 - In May, a skier fell 500 meters while descending the Whymper couloir. This Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Edward Whymper Edward Whymper FRSE (27 April 1840 – 16 September 1911) was an English mountaineer , explorer, illustrator, and author best known for

595-501: The age of 71. A funeral was held four days later. He is buried in the English cemetery in Chamonix. Frederick Whymper Frederick Whymper (20 July 1838 in London – 26 November 1901) was a British artist and explorer . Whymper was the eldest son of Elizabeth Whitworth Claridge and Josiah Wood Whymper , a celebrated wood-engraver and artist. His younger brother Edward Whymper

630-704: The area of Bute Inlet on the Pacific Coast, leaving shortly before the Chilcotin War . Many of his early travels were by steamship; his drawings include volcanoes on Kamchatka and Alaskan glaciers . While in the far north, Whymper served on the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition and the Western Union Telegraph Expedition (1865), spending the winter of 1866 at Nulato , Alaska with W.H. Dall and travelling up

665-539: The body of Patrice Hyvert, a French climber who went missing on 1 March 1982, was found. In October, a skier was killed while skiing the Whymper Couloir when he fell several hundred metres to his death. 2018 - In January, a skier was killed while skiing the Whymper Couloir. In August, three members of an Italian climbing exhibition were killed when slipping on rocks. 2023 - In June, four were killed on Aiguille Verte. Two skiers were killed in separate incidents on Couturier Couloir, and two climbers fell to their death while on

700-424: The collection was "interesting on account of the care bestowed by its collector in recording the exact locality from which every specimen was obtained". Boulenger described four new species from the materials, three of them named after Whymper: the snake Coronella whymperi (now a junior synonym of Saphenophis boursieri ) and the frogs Prostherapis whymperi , Phryniscus elegans , and Hylodes whymperi (now

735-423: The descent, Hadow slipped and fell onto Croz, dislodging him and dragging Douglas and Hudson to their deaths; the rope parted, saving the other three. A controversy ensued as to whether the rope had actually been cut, but a formal investigation could not find any proof, and the elder Peter Taugwalder was acquitted. The rope had snapped between Taugwalder and Lord Francis Douglas. Whymper asked Taugwalder to show him

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770-635: The direction of the Aiguille du Moine. At 10.15 we stood on the summit (13, 541 feet [sic]), and devoured our bread and cheese with a good appetite. The second ascent was by Charles Hudson , T. S. Kennedy and Michel Croz via the Moine ridge. The first woman to climb the Aiguille Verte was Lucy Walker in 1870. The first solo ascent of the Arête Sans Nom was accomplished by Nicolas Jaeger in 1972. Aiguille Verte

805-496: The mountaineer after the Matterhorn accident. The marriage produced one daughter, Ethel. The couple separated in 1910. Edith remarried in 1913 and died the following year from complications of pregnancy. Shortly after returning to Chamonix from another climb in the Alps, Whymper became ill, locked himself in his room at the Grand Hotel Couttet, and refused all medical treatment. Whymper died alone on 16 September 1911, at

840-591: The newspaper Alta California . City directories describe him as an artist and mining engineer, and in 1871 he was a founding member of the San Francisco Art Association . He returned to England at some point, publishing The Heroes of the Arctic and their Adventures and The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril and Heroism , prior to his death in London on 26 November 1901 by what is listed as "failure of

875-400: The push for the summit: At the top of the small gully we crossed over the intervening rocks into the large one [the eponymous Whymper couloir]. At last ice replaced snow, and we turned over to the rocks upon its left. Charming rocks they were; granitic in texture, gritty, holding the nails well. At 9.45 we parted from them, and completed the ascent by a little ridge of snow which descended in

910-627: The readings of aneroid barometers at high altitudes, he published a work entitled How to Use the Aneroid Barometer , and succeeded in introducing important improvements in their construction. He afterwards published two guide-books to Zermatt and Chamonix. While in Ecuador, Whymper made a collection of amphibians and reptiles that he handed over to George Albert Boulenger at the British Museum . The collection received some praise from Boulenger, who said that "though containing no striking novelties",

945-432: The rope. To his surprise, he saw that it was the oldest and weakest of the ropes they brought, and one which had been intended only as a reserve. All those who had fallen had been tied with a Manila rope, or with a second and equally strong one, and consequently it had been only between the survivors and those who had fallen where the weaker rope had been used. Whymper also had suggested to Hudson that they should have attached

980-418: The study of altitude sickness and the effect of reduced pressure on the human body. His chief guide was Jean-Antoine Carrel , who later died from exhaustion on the Matterhorn after bringing his employers to safety through a snowstorm. During 1880, Whymper made two ascents of Chimborazo (6,267m), including its first ascent; though Alexander von Humboldt had climbed on the volcano in 1802, he did not reach

1015-513: The summit. Whymper spent a night on the summit of Cotopaxi and made first ascents of Sincholagua , Antisana , Cayambe , Sara Urco and Cotacachi . In 1892, he published the results of his journey in a volume entitled Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator . His observations on altitude sickness led him to conclude that it was caused by a reduction in atmospheric pressure, which lessens

1050-646: The time was very poorly mapped. From the summit of Mont Pelvoux, Whymper discovered that it was overtopped by a neighbouring peak, subsequently named the Barre des Écrins , which, before the annexation of Savoy added Mont Blanc to the possessions of France, was the highest point in the French Alps. Whymper climbed the Barre des Écrins in 1864 with Horace Walker , A. W. Moore and guides Christian Almer senior and junior. The years 1861 to 1865 were filled with new expeditions in

1085-599: The value of inhaled air, and by expansion of the air or gas within the body, causing pressure upon the internal organs. The effects produced by gas expansion may be temporary and dissipate when equilibrium has been restored between the internal and external pressure. The publication of his work was recognised on the part of the Royal Geographical Society by the award of the Patron's medal. His experiences in South America having convinced him of certain serious errors in

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1120-508: Was a renowned alpinist who made the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. In his youth, Whymper was a talented artist working to produce engravings for publication and having his landscapes on exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 1859 to 1861. He travelled to Victoria, British Columbia in 1862 and to the Cariboo in the following year. In 1864 he joined road builders in

1155-500: Was an optical illusion, and that the dip of the strata, which on the Italian side formed a continuous series of overhangs, should make the opposite side a natural staircase. This party of four was joined by Hudson and Croz, and the inexperienced Douglas Hadow . Their attempt by what is now the normal route, the Hörnli ridge , met with success on 14 July 1865, only days before an Italian party. On

1190-659: Was hired to “conduct explorations and surveys in the interests of the Canadian Pacific railway company” (Wheeler, 1905). In 1901, Whymper and his four guides (Joseph Bossoney, Christian Kaufmann , Christian Klucker and Joseph Pollinger) made the first ascents of Mount Whymper and Stanley Peak in the Vermilion Pass area of the Canadian Rockies. His brother Frederick also has a mountain in British Columbia named after him , from his days as artist illustrator with

1225-574: Was the designer of the Henrietta Amelia Bird memorial clock tower in Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Scotland. It was built in 1905, funded by Isabella Bird (Mrs. Bishop) in memory of her sister. On 25 April 1906, aged 65, Whymper married Edith Mary Lewin aged 23 (born 1883) at Emmanuel Church in Forest Gate , Essex (now London ). The service was presided over by Canon J. M'Cormick, who had assisted

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